Technical Field
The invention concerns an apparatus for handling a rotor blade of a wind power installation, in particular for holding the rotor blade and performing rotary and/or translatory movements.
Description of the Related Art
The construction and manufacture of a rotor blade up to definitive mounting thereof at the location of use are effected in a plurality of working and process steps. In the course of those operations the rotor blade has to be repeatedly lifted, turned, displaced and changed in terms of the way it is clamped to make various regions on the rotor blade accessible for the operations to be performed. The above-mentioned working steps become more difficult with increasing dimensions of the rotor blade and are the subject of an ever increasing amount of work and time, which has an adverse effect on the economy of rotor blades to be produced.
Fixedly anchored holders for clamping rotor blades are known from the state of the art. A disadvantage with those holders is that they are provided only for carrying out work along a single treatment position or section and, for carrying out working operations along a further treatment section, the rotor blade has to be undamped, transported away and re-clamped. In addition the known holders are only suitable for clamping and holding relatively small rotor blades. That requires the use of lifting devices and devices for changing the clamping action, which make it possible to perform transport operations. In addition the clamping devices which are fixedly anchored in the ground are not movable so that, after production, the rotor blade has to be freed from the clamping device and is to be conveyed on to a vehicle by means of lifting and re-clamping devices. Thus the manufacture of a rotor blade is linked to working steps which only represent clamping and re-clamping for the purposes of re-positioning of the rotor blade, and do not represent a manufacturing process or working step for the rotor blade. Those operations result in the economy in manufacture of rotor blades being adversely affected.
The following state of the art was searched in the German patent application from which priority is claimed: WO 2003/057 528 A1.